Recently, senior Catherine Haley achieved one of her lifelong goals: to see one of her idols, Harry Styles, in concert in June. She raised the money to buy the ticket herself by selling her art.

Haley began an Instagram account,  @_catherinehaleyart, in December after being encouraged by her loved ones to share her artistic talents with the world. Almost immediately, she received dozens of direct messages from people praising her work and asking her to create a specific art piece. 

“It was kind of touching,” Haley said. “I almost got teary-eyed. I was like, people really do like what I’m doing.” 

Whenever a customer asks Haley to create a custom piece of artwork, all they have to do is send her a picture that they want her to recreate. She will then respond with the sizes she is able to do for it, and the customer pays. 

Haley’s smaller pieces would start at $5, and larger pieces can work their way up to $50 and beyond. So far, Haley has accumulated $246 in profits.

 The majority of Haley’s pieces are portraits of people and animals, which she draws with colored pencils. Her mother, who is an artist as well, sells her work in local art shows. 

Before Haley began the Instagram account, the only people that truly knew of her art ability were the art department and her family and friends. One of Haley’s closest friends, senior Grace Manion, encouraged her to start an Instagram account.

“She has an incredible talent, and I thought she should share it,” Manion said.

But Haley had also come to the realization that she could profit from selling her art. 

“People always said that they’d buy my work,” Haley said. “I’m going to college, and I need some money. I also really wanted to see Harry Styles in concert, and my mom said I have to buy my own ticket.” 

Harry Styles and One Direction have been a big part of Haley’s childhood, and Styles is the main subject of many of her pieces. Haley noted that his quirkiness makes him a fun art subject to draw. 

“He embodies what I think a wholehearted person is,” Haley said. 

Besides Harry Styles, Haley enjoys drawing people because she loves to capture people’s expressions through color, which she does by matching emotions with different color schemes. For example, she would pair happiness with primary colors and sadness with cooler tones. 

When Haley goes to college, she hopes to take art courses and continue to sell her art. She plans to focus on dorm art for her friends and classmates because of its high demand. Something she’s learned from this whole experience is that entering an art-related field is something that she would be extremely interested in.

Haley said, “The process of connecting with my customers and making something that will give them joy makes all the work worth it.”